Group to donate bike racks to eateries

By Allen Jones

Published 3:39 pm, Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Photo: R. Clayton McKee

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Kathryn Steinhubl secures her bike in the rack outside The Hay Merchant on Westheimer. The Hay Merchant's owner is working to encourage other establishments in the city to install racks for cyclists. Photo by R. Clayton McKee less

Kathryn Steinhubl secures her bike in the rack outside The Hay Merchant on Westheimer. The Hay Merchant's owner is working to encourage other establishments in the city to install racks for cyclists. Photo by ... more

Photo: R. Clayton McKee

Group to donate bike racks to eateries

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On nice days, a 20-station bicycle rack stays mostly full outside Hay Merchant, a food-and-beer establishment located among a cramped string of restaurants on Westheimer near Montrose. When the rack is full, it means 20 people left vehicles at home and freed up parking outside the popular venue.

The Hay Merchant is becoming an example of how private businesses can play a role in managing Houston's urban congestion, and co-owner Bobby Heugel wants other owners of restaurants and bars to encourage customers to use bicycles.

Heugel created an initiative to provide free bike racks to small food-and-drink establishments located inside Loop 610. Beginning in May, the racks will be provided by Organized Kollaboration on Restaurant Affairs, a nonprofit advocacy group co-founded by Heugel to represent bars and restaurants.

"Our goal is to demonstrate that the private sector can provide a structured and responsible response to urban density and to our city's reliance on cars," said Heugel, who also co-owns Anvil Bar & Refuge. "It is not something we have to wait for city infrastructure to provide."

OKRA is accepting cash donations and selling T-shirts to raise funds to fabricate a modified version of the bike rack outside Hay Merchant. The square rack, made from a single bar of heavy steel, can accommodate two bicycles. Racks can be connected.

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Bike rack initiative

What: The nonprofit group Organized Kollaboration on Restaurant Affairs is kicking off a program to provide free bike racks to small restaurants and bars inside Loop 610 to help relieve traffic congestion.

To donate: The organization is accepting donations and selling T-shirts to fund the initiative at www.FriedOKRA.org.

Bike rack initiative

What: The nonprofit group Organized Kollaboration on Restaurant Affairs is kicking off a program to provide free bike racks to small restaurants and bars inside Loop 610 to help relieve traffic congestion.

To donate: The organization is accepting donations and selling T-shirts to fund the initiative at www.FriedOKRA.org.

The organization plans to start donating one rack per month. OKRA made arrangements to buy the racks at cost from the Houston-based firm Collaborative Projects.

The cost will depend on how many can be made at one time, said the firm's owner, Jim Herd.

"It would never be a mass-produced item, but I sure would like to make three to five sets at a time," he said.

Herd said he designed the racks so businesses would want to display their solidarity in promoting biking.

"There was an effort to make this thing sort of iconic so the racks can be out in front of places, and not just be a piece of tube steel that people wouldn't want to see," Herd said. "I think people will be proud to have one."

Herd believes businesses beyond the restaurant and bar community will have an interest in the project.

His firm, which designed Hay Merchant's interior, became a member of OKRA.

"I think OKRA is on the right track here," Herd said. "They are actively trying to find solutions and be proactive. I think it will pique the interest of a lot of people. I know there are starting to be some real bike initiatives with the city and all kinds of other organizations. This should help."

Heugel said the city of Houston is seeking ways to deal with crowded off-street parking.

A current proposed change to a city ordinance could require new restaurants and bars to provide an increased number of parking spaces.

"It is very difficult for small, independent restaurants and bars to obtain additional parking, which requires them to spend more money on real estate to develop that type of infrastructure," Heugel said.

OKRA's members, he said, are trying to demonstrate that there are other solutions.

"For our part, this is just one effort out of many that OKRA plans to make that shows restaurants care about what happens outside of their walls," Heugel said, and added that the issue at stake is bigger than parking.

"It is about how restaurants, bars and residents become better neighbors and how we deal with challenges that Houston is going to have to face going forward," he said.

Dan Raine, a cyclist-pedestrian coordinator with the city's Public Works & Engineering Department, said he personally thinks it "is a wonderful thing OKRA is doing, in particular in a high-density location where parking is at a premium."

According to the department's Houston Bikeway Program website, bicycle parking encourages bicycle travel. Federal funds were used to provide more than 1,600 bike parking spaces throughout the city. Bike racks were provided to schools, libraries and parks and are at Health and Human Services Department facilities and outside City Hall.